Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei – 08



What am amazing conclusion to the love triangle arc. Seriously, Sarai-ya Goyou has really gotten some serious competition for my favourite series of the season, I really love the way in which Masaaki Yuasa has been delivering this series so far. This episode was nearly again the exact same as the previous two, only with the focus on Keiko, Watashi’s pen-pal, and a different conclusion.

The past arc has been brilliant in making everything spiral out of control. It’s THE proof that repetition doesn’t need to be bad, provided that you use it well. There have been tons of series who did amazing things with it (Utena, Higurashi, Jigoku Shoujo and Umineko, and it’s very interesting to see Yojou-han joining them.

I think we all knew that Keiko was actually Oz, the moment he handed Watashi that magazine, in which he found Keiko’s address. Part of what made this episode so much fun though was the way in which he was so genuinely enamoured with her. The look on his face (and especially the dialogue that went on inside his head) at the moment he found out that he had been exchanging love letters with Oz was priceless.

Akaishi’s role in everything also turned out to be very interesting in the past arc. The big difference with the previous arcs is that Watashi actually did something nice for her, instead of ignoring her (that was probably the meaning of the promise-scene of the earlier episodes: it’s to show that the two actually fit each other quite well, but because Watashi is so incredibly dense he never made any advances on her and forgot about his promises to her). Also, she’s living next to Oz.

Seriously, now that prediction that Higuchi made back into that first episode gets a new dimension with this. Who knows how often they hooked up with each other while Watashi was messed up in his umpth weird idea? We’ve heard of Oz’s girlfriend before, but have we actually seen her once? And again: Johnny was no use in this episode, and Watashi again left her. But then again, he really was in love with the image of Keiko he created. That’s the really weird part here: his love for Hanuki felt a bit shallow. Instead however, he has been genuinely in love with two women who didn’t exist. In fact, Watashi is a guy who just keeps chasing after these abstracts that don’t really exist, instead of looking what’s right in front of him: something concrete that can make him happy. Johnny turned out to be the complete opposite of this: not looking far away, but instead just trying to go after what’s right in front of him.

I really wonder what those final episodes will be about: how will they put everything to a conclusion? This is Masaaki Yuasa. For the sake of spoilers I’ll be vague in this, but ‘certain’ series of his have had really… ‘interesting’ endings.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

7 thoughts on “Yojou-han Shinwa Taikei – 08

  1. This episode was brilliant. It resolves the arc quite beautifully, and yet opens the series up to the epiphanic conclusion. I noted that Akashi was always offering her hand to Watashi, only that he’s always had to run away for her, or tragically wait for her when it was too late. It was never in doubt that they were great for one another: what is in doubt is how Watashi will act this time. Will he regress into his indecisiveness, or finally realize that dangling opportunity was actually Akashi?

    I love how Mr. Yuasa subverted what everyone realized and transformed it into a catharsis. I didn’t expect Akashi’s involvement to such an extent, and it’s difficult to see why he could not see the kindness and concern of Akashi for him – people often fail to grab what is right in their faces, and this is such a tragedy.

    Wonderful commentary. But the fact that the episode shows that Akashi and Watashi are so good together was even more wonderful.

  2. “Interesting endings”? The only other Masaaki Yuasa series I saw was Kaiba. I remember the ending being extremely weird and it didn’t help that I was half asleep when I saw the last episode. Did Kemonozume have a really screwed up ending as well?

  3. wow with here saying there’s gonna be interesting conclusions, I really would look forward to how Watashi can evade Ozu? it’s fated it seems, and I think I can only get the better picture after the show has ended…

  4. Tuskus: yeah, it wasn’t Kaiba I was referring to, instead Kemonozume and Mind Game were what came to my mind.

    [MAJOR Kemonozume SPOILER]

    Especially Kemonozume. Its final episode was extremely silly, even though the four episodes prior to it were incredibly serious and had a ton of drama in them.

  5. pretty nice, next episode will be some sort about Ozu Right? I hope so. I think Ozu is after the real keiko-san from the look of it, the hint is there.

  6. Kaiba had a pretty good ending. It made sense and it was a good conclusion to the plot.

    Kemonozume’s ending was… Iwas WTFing the entire episode. God damn.

    Since Kaiba is more recent, I’m going to figure that he’s figured out how to make a good ending, and hope that Yojou-hanlive s up tothe standard.

  7. Interestingly enough the clubs Watashi has been joining are more and more in line with what he actually has some interest in/ability to handle.

    Also, I never actually found his love for Hanuki to be anything but “shallow” or rather platonic. I think its just him misinterpreting signals, or rather his desire to end up in a relationship so badly that caused such. Its not necessarily that I see Watashi chasing an abstract as it is the idea of being in a relationship. Its that as we have with each starting episode he states his resolve to have one during his stint in college, but alas you just don’t fall in love because you decided to.

    Which I think is why he keep denying Akashi because she was clearly not in the plan. Despite the fact that Akashi obviously has bits and pieces of what Watashi’s ideal woman is, he can’t reconcile that its been nothing at all like how he pictured he would fall in love. That there is no romanticism at all with it, I recall the cycling episode where he ruined his chances with her by trying to act completely like hero so that she would fall head over heels for him (well her and all other women).

    He’s too stuck up with his vanity of love that he’s missed out on the opportunity dangling right before him (for what 3 years!). In the same way that he’s been picking clubs on the early onset which were completely out of his element, he was a fish out of water for most part, and sticking with it (when all the warning signs were there) all because of his vanity to show off in the club.

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